12 Actors Who Stupidly Turned Down Comic Book Movies
12. Christian Bale Turned Down Returning As Batman
In the frankly unjustly titled 'Christian Bale: The Inside Story of the Darkest Batman' (clearly nobody has seen Burton's Batman), authors Harrison Cheung and Nicola Pittam claimed that Bale was offered an eye-watering $50 million offer to return as Batman, but that he turned it down. Rumours since have suggested that he was put off by Chris Nolan's lack of front-line involvement, the extended contractual needs of the DCCU and the effect it might have had on the legacy of Nolan's trilogy. Whatever the case, Bale could have scored Warner Bros a guaranteed billion by returning, and though people are beginning to warm to the idea of Ben Affleck as the caped crusader, Bale would be more of a sure thing. And he's not exactly had a great track record since he took the costume off for the last time... Obviously a lot has also been said about Michael Keaton's history with turning down a return to Batman in the wake of Birdman's success, but he definitely had no concerns over pulling out when Tim Burton was moved out of the director's chair, and the studio looked to move away from the darkness:
I always knew it was a big machine with a big studio and corporation and board behind it. But the simple answer was, it wasnt any good. I was nice. I said to them, This is a really interesting character with a dual personality. I tried to make them understand. But when someone says to you, Does it have to be so dark?I thought, Are we talking about the same character? So finally I just said no.
